Presentation aims at introducing the principles of building concept maps for teaching English. At the elementary level they are coupled with speaking cards that promote speaking and activities.

1. Building Concept Maps at
the Elementary Level
Maryna Tsehelska
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical
University
Educational Centre “Interclass”
Kryvyi Rih

2. Key Points
1. How to develop concept maps.
2. Speaking maps and cards.
3. Important steps in developing speaking and vocabulary.

3. Before speaking about concept
maps let’s examine common ways
of vocabulary teaching.

4. What do we teach?
Nation and Gu claim that “in terms of usefulness,
all words are not created equal” (Nation, 2007: 20).
The concept of ‘usefulness’ in this context refers to
communicative usefulness. Put it another way,
the primary and ultimate goal of language learning
is communication. Communication is possible in the
greatest part thanks to vocabulary. In this regard,
vocabulary learning should focus on words that
provide students with the greatest benefit.

5. So, most researchers propose frequency as the main
or one of the main criteria regarding vocabulary
selection in course books.
Vocabulary input in EFL textbooks is based
on frequency criterion.

6. Nation (2001) states that primary
attention should be paid to the most
frequent words in General English. In
a narrow sense, low frequency words
would not really deserve classroom
time, and the rest of instruction after
dealing with those frequent words
should be mostly devoted to different
learning and guessing strategies.

7. An example of vocabulary list

8. Advantages: a learner can quickly
communicate at a basic level.
Disadvantage: this method does not help to
create a robust construction in the long-
term memory.

9. So, how many Ukrainian children will start
communicating in English shortly after they
started learning it? ??
Even if they learn the phrases, they will just
have no chance to do it 
Let’s examine what modern cognitive
science tells about it.

10. M.Karpenko (2008)defined the
interdependence between the
neurophysiological mechanisms and
the principles of building the
curriculum, which should be built on
four phases – impressing, memorizing,
authorization and initiation.

11. Impressing
The first phase called “impressing”
allows building the schematic neuronet
in the brain and forms the motivation to
learning. At this stage we can only give
the scheme of the topic we are going to
teach.

12. As an example we’ll take topic “Food”.
This map is used as a reference/
portfolio map during the first three –
four years of studying English.

14. Memorizing
At the second stage a new neuronet is
being formed with the help of various
exercises, listening and watching films,
working with computer programs, etc.

15. Authorization
The third stage – authorization
will edit the neuronet in the brain and at this
stage we can start asking students to
display the knowledge they got by making
presentations, giving talks, reports or
participating in the seminars.

16. Initiation
At the fourth stage the official
representation of knowledge is relevant
– it is the time for tests and grades.

17. So, now we understand how a student
will learn vocabulary, but what exactly
should be in the map?

18. To group material for all four
phases of learning, we have to
group it into a concept map with
meaningful categories for this
concept.

20. Such maps group vocabulary,
develop speaking and may be
easily accessed during the period
of learning.

21. How do we compile
them?

22. Firstly, we need symbols for the
parts of speech (sentence):
Adjective Noun (Who?) Verb Noun (What?) Adverb
An important detail – e.g. a
preposition

23. These symbols allow building
sentences. Here is a scheme of Present
Simple:

25. Next – find the principles to
compile your vocabulary:
The qualia structure, interpretation of the aitia of Aristotle, are as the modes of
explanation associated with a word or phrase in the language, and are defined
as follows:
• formal: the basic category of which distinguishes the meaning of a word
within a larger domain;
• constitutive: the relation between an object and its constituent parts;
• telic: the purpose or function of the object, if there is one;
• agentive: the factors involved in the object's origins or ``coming into being”.

26. interactions with other
objects.
Actually we say:
1. What an object is
(qualities + hyper system)
2.What an object has
(subsystem + possessions)
3. What an object does

27. Using these principles
we can different kinds of maps:
- portfolio concept maps,
- speaking maps,
- speaking cards.

28. Now, let’s study come back to the topic
“Food”.
What are the meaningful categories?

29. Portfolio Concept Map “Food”

30. Questions:
Main categories
Objects, verbs, people, adjectives

31. Important: the underlined root of a
word suggests word building and
later – paraphrasing:
To bake – a baker – bakery.

33. Locate:
• It is next to turkey: _________________
• It is between rice and wheat: ________________
• All vegetables that start with “p”:
______________
• It is the last in the category “grains”:
___________
• It is under trout: __________________

34. Odd Man Out
Milk, cheese, chicken
Broccoli, lettice, cauliflower
Grocer, green grocer, dairy seller
Banana, lemon, sweet

35. Analogies

36. Name all:
• Sweet foods
• Sour foods
• Salty foods
• Red foods
• etc.

37. Speaking
Concept map + speaking cards

38. At Level 1 we adjust the map to
young learners:

39. At Level 2 learners are able to talk
about a dish:
This speaking map
contains:
- Categories from
the previous year.
- New categories.

40. At Level 3 students can talk about the ingredients:
Describe a Dish/ Food
I want to describe________________ by such categories as:
Cuisine This dish is typical for ____________________________ cuisine.
(global, Ukrainian, French, Italian, ……. )
Meal It is usually eaten for _________________________________
(breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snack)
Ingredients It contains: ……provide …….. and help to……
FoodGroup
Fruits/ Vegetables such as…. vitamins and minerals stay healthy
Dairy such as…. calcium have strong bones
Meat / Fish/Nuts such as…. protein build muscles
Grains such as…. carbohydrates give energy
Sweets such as…. sugar give energy for the brain
Oils such as…. fats
Way of
cooking
__ We cut: peel, chop, cut, core, slice, dice, grate, mash, mince ….. with …………..
__ We cook: we boil, stew, fry, roast, toast, bake, grill, smoke……..with……………….
__ We process: we cool, freeze, mix, blend, stir, whip, squeeze, spread…….with………
Texture It has creamy/ tender – chewy – tough texture. It is juicy – dry. It is liquid.
Taste and
Condiments
It has __________ (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) taste.
It is best with ________ (pepper, vinegar, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise).
Opinion I consider this dish healthy/ unhealthy
delicious, tasty, tasteless, disgusting
Firstly.., secondly..,
thirdly…

41. With such maps we promote using
HOTS in Teaching English
1.Categorizing.
2.Compare and Contrast
3.Analogical reasoning (outer and
inner vocabulary extensions)
4.Cause and Effect

43. References and Sources
1. Карпенко М.П. (2008) Телеобучение. М.: СГА.
2. Nation, P. & Gu, P. (2007). Focus on Vocabulary. Sydney : NCELTR
3. Nation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
• http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html
• http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm
• http://oaks.nvg.org/taxonomy-bloom.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bloom%27s_Rose.png